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AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ECOLOGICAL CONDITION OF COASTAL WATERS SURROUNDING THE GULF OF MEXICO IAPSO INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY MEETING, LA PLATA, ARGENTINA, OCTOBER 2001
Citation:
Summers, J K. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ECOLOGICAL CONDITION OF COASTAL WATERS SURROUNDING THE GULF OF MEXICO IAPSO INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY MEETING, LA PLATA, ARGENTINA, OCTOBER 2001. Presented at IAPSO International Association for Biological Oceanography, Mar del Plata, Argentina, October 2001.
Description:
Assessment of the Ecological Condition of Coastal Waters Surrounding the Gulf of Mexico (Abstract). To be presented at the Joint IAPSO/IABO Assembly: 2001 An Ocean Odyssey, 21-26 October 2001, Mar del Plata, Argentina. 1 p. (ERL,GB R844).
The purpose of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program - Coastal Resources is to estimate the current status, extent, changes, and trends in ecological indicators of the condition of the nation's coastal resources (intertidal, subtidal, and offshore) on a regional and national basis. Monitoring activities, concurrent with modeling and effects research, are present in approximately 70% of the nation's estuarine waters and focus on suites of measurements describing the benthic community, the fish community, water quality, levels of sediment and tissue contamination, sediment toxicity, and SAV extent/condition.
Estuarine monitoring is based on a probability-based sampling design implemented over a 60-day window during July-September in selected years. Such annual sampling occurred in Gulf of Mexico estuaries from 1991-1994, in southeastern estuaries from 1994-1995, and in South Florida estuaries in 1995. The results of monitoring show that 25%?4% of the sediments of the nation had degraded biological conditions while 29%?4% of the area showed degraded conditions in relation to human uses of the resource (e.g., water clarity, tissue contaminants,
and the presence of marine debris). Biological degradation is characterized by significantly less than expected number of benthic species and diversity, high numbers of pollution-tolerant species, and low numbers of pollution-sensitive species, incidence of fish pathologies, and increased levels of selected biomarkers in target fish species. Human use degradation is characterized as decreased water and sediment quality, potential for decreased consumptive use, and incidence of characteristics limiting non-consumptive use. These estimates are based on 100% of the estuarine resources spanning from Cape Henry, VA to Brownsville, TX.